ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice will take up on Wednesday a constitution amendment bill seeking status of national language for regional languages spoken in various parts of the country as mother tongues.

The bill, piloted by Marvi Memon of the PML-N with nine other party members in the National Assembly in February this year, seeks to substitute Article 251 of the Constitution which presently declares Urdu as the national language.

NA panel supports commission on languages

The bill calls upon the government to set up a national language commission to develop criteria for giving the status of national language to mother tongues being spoken in the country.

The proposed Article 251 says: “The national languages of Pakistan are Balochi, Balti, Brahvi, Punjabi, Pushto, Shina, Sindhi, Seraiki, Hindko, Urdu and all those mother tongues as deemed to be major mother tongues of Pakistan by the National Language Commission. The said commission which will comprise experts and linguists will be set up with the prime objective to develop criteria for giving the status of national languages to major mother tongues of Pakistan.”

The clause 2 of the proposed article says: “The official language of Pakistan shall be English until arrangements are made for its replacement with Urdu within 15 years from the commencement day.”

The bill also calls upon the federal government to “establish a fund for the development and promotion of national languages as well as ensure that Arabic and Persian are taught as subjects at school level”.

In May 2011, a similar bill also moved by Ms Memon had been rejected by the standing committee. It was rejected by the members through a majority vote polled mostly on provincial lines, prompting a walkout by Ms Memon and veteran PPP leader Syed Zafar Ali Shah, both from Sindh.

When contacted, Ms Memon expressed the hope that this time the bill would not be rejected outright as it had been moved in line with the PML-N’s election manifesto.

“We look forward to the language bill review in the law committee. As a commitment to the PML-N manifesto, it will be the government’s responsibility to set up the language commission so that it can propose a government bill on the subject,” she said.

When asked when the commission would be set up, she said the same question would be asked from the government in the Wednesday’s meeting.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2014